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Passionfruit and Coconut Pound Cake with Yogurt Icing

On Thursday something momentous happened. The official biggest cake failure of the year. It was epic, it was bigger than any year before it. Even worse than the time I didn’t let a chocolate cake cool and all the icing melted off. Even worse than when I used seven tins of tomatoes to make a tomato sauce and burnt the whole pot. Even worse, and this is saying something, than the time I got up super early to make crepes for my sister and ended up waking her up with my screaming and yelling and throwing burnt pancake at my dog.

It was AWESOME. Maybe awesome isn’t the right word, but it was one of those failures that’s so terrible and so complete and utterly unfixable that it becomes kind of funny. I started out with a positive outlook, ready to make an almond and poppyseed lime cake that was gluten free and vegan too. Everything was going fine until I tried to mix in the chia seed gel. The batter was so stiff and hard they just lay on top of it like fish eggs on a bowl of clay. It was so gross…I kept pouring in more almond milk and lime juice and other random things until it became this huge speckled monster dough.

I baked it and ominously poured syrup over it in an attempt to make it edible, but alas. The cake was not to be. The entire thing ended up going in the bin which broke my heart because I HATE throwing out cake. And facing the prospect of making the whole cake again when the light was already failing…it just wasn’t going to happen.

Today when I woke up and realised I was going to make a post today, I almost decided just to stay in bed all day and live in my doona for a while. It was the law cruise last night for my uni and while it was super fun, this morning was super terrible. Too. Much. Free. Champagne. In the end I just wanted something sweet and easy with a very low fail rate. This passionfruit pound cake was perfect.

The combination of passionfruit and coconut is so awesome. And I used vanilla sugar as well which made it taste even better, but if you don’t have any I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy some. I love making pound cakes because they’re so simple and old fashioned. They make me think I’m some olden-days hubbard stirring eggs and butter with a wooden spoon. I love how all the ingredients are so simple but you can add almost any flavour and it will still turn out amazing.

Today was a butter-sugar-eggs cake day. Tomorrow will probably be a raw chocolate slice and banana smoothie day, but sometimes you just want a massive piece of real homemade cake. So that’s what I made 🙂 The icing is probably my favourite part. If you want a dairy-free option coconut yogurt would be the perfect substitute.

500g thick full fat plain yogurt, drained in a cheesecloth for at least an hour

3 tbsp icing sugar or honey

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) and line a 20cm or 8inch round cake tin with baking paper.

Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Slowly beat in each egg, allowing each to be absorbed before adding the next. Gently fold in half the flour, then half the coconut milk, then the rest of each. Spoon into the tin and bake for about 30 minutes, until the top is golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Strain the passionfruit juice and stir in the caster sugar. When the cake is still hot and in its tin, pour over the syrup slowly, allowing it to soak the cake. Allow to cool completely.

Mix together the yogurt and icing sugar, then spoon over the cake and spread evenly. You can top it with the leftover passionfruit seeds if you want. Best eaten the same day but lasts well in the fridge.

I agree some days there is just no substitute for a piece if good old cake.
I had such a craving yesterday and went looking for a passion fruit cream sponge cake.
I wish I had had the time and know how to make the magnificent cake you have created!
The syrup!!
Bill

I’m loving the combination of flavours in this cake! It looks really delicious and buttery and that yogurt icing sounds divine. I’m the same, I not ever patient enough to wait for cakes to cool- the icing problem has happened to me too! Lovely recipe:)

Gaah!!!! Kitchen disasters suck!!!! Booo! I tried making a batch of dairy free and sugarfree muffins and they didn’t work. The batter was just tough, like you described and the cake was a lump of ‘utter waste’ Perhaps another attempt will fix it? This pound cake, however, is just adorbs!!!! I LOVE the tropical-ness of the cake with passion fruit and coconut and that yogurt frosting is calling my name!